| 1. |
- Bag, Pushan, 1993-
(författare)
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How could Christmas trees remain evergreen? : photosynthetic acclimation of Scots pine and Norway spruce needles during winter
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Plants and other green organisms harvest sunlight by green chlorophyll pigments and covertit to chemical energy (sugars) and oxygen in a process called photosynthesis providing the foundation for life on Earth. Although it is unanimously believed that oceanic phytoplanktons are the main contributors to the global photosynthesis, the contribution of coniferous boreal forests distributed across vast regions of the northern hemisphere cannot be undermined. Hence boreal forests account signifificantly for social, economical and environmental sustainability. Not only do conifers thrive in the tundra regions with extreme climate, but they also maintain their needles green over the boreal winter. A question remains; what makes them so resilient? In this respect, we aimed to understand the remarkable winter adaptation strategies in two dominant boreal coniferous species,i.e., Pinus sylvestris and Picea abies. First, we mapped the transcriptional landscape in Norway spruce (Picea abies) needles over the annual cycle. Transcriptional changes in the nascent needles reflflected a sequence of developmental processes and active vegetative growth during early summer and summer. Later after maturation, transcriptome reflflected activated defense against biotic factors and acclimationin response to abiotic environmental cues such as freezing temperatures during winter. Secondly, by monitoring the photosynthetic performance of Scot pine needles, we found that the trees face extreme stress during the early spring (Feb-Mar) when sub-zero temperatures are accompanied by high solar radiation. At this time, drastic changes occur in the thylakoid membranes of the chloroplast that allows the mixing of photosystem I and photosystem II that typically remain laterally segregated. This triggers direct energy transfer from PSII to PSI and thus protects PSII from damage. Furthermore, we found that this loss of lateral segregation may be a consequence of triple phosphorylationof Lhcb1 (Light harvesting complex1 of photosystem II). The structural changes in thylakoid membranes also lead to changes inthe thylakoid macro domain organisationand pigment protein composition. Furthermore, we discovered that while PSII is protected by direct energy transfer, the protection of PSI is provided through photoreduction of oxygen by flavodiiron proteins, which in turn allows P700 to stay in an oxidised state necessary for direct energy transfer. These coordinated cascades of changes concomitantly protect both PSI and PSII to maintain the needles green over the winter.
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| 2. |
- Bertaccini, Edward J, et al.
(författare)
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Modeling Anesthetic Binding Sites within the Glycine Alpha One Receptor Based on Prokaryotic Ion Channel Templates : The Problem with TM4
- 2010
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Ingår i: Journal of chemical information and modeling. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1549-960X .- 1549-9596. ; 50:12, s. 2248-2255
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ligand-gated ion channels (LGICs) significantly modulate anesthetic effects. Their exact molecular structure remains unknown. This has led to ambiguity regarding the proper amino acid alignment within their 3D structure and, in turn, the location of any anesthetic binding sites. Current controversies suggest that such a site could be located in either an intra- or intersubunit locale within the transmembrane domain of the protein. Here, we built a model of the glycine alpha one receptor (GlyRa1) based on the open-state structures of two new high-resolution ion channel templates from the prokaryote, Gloebacter violaceus (GLIC). Sequence scoring suggests reasonable homology between GlyRa1 and GLIC. Three of the residues notable for modulating anesthetic action are on transmembrane segments 1-3 (TM1-3): (ILE229, SER 267, and ALA 288). They line an intersubunit interface, in contrast to previous models. However, residues from the fourth transmembrane domain (TM4) that are known to modulate a variety of anesthetic effects are quite distant from this putative anesthetic binding site. While this model can account for a large proportion of the physicochemical data regarding such proteins, it cannot readily account for the alterations on anesthetic effects that are due to mutations within TM4.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Tapani, Sofia, 1982
(författare)
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Stochastic modelling and analysis of early mouse development
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to model and describe dynamical events for biological cells using statistical and mathematical tools. The thesis includes five papers that all relate to stochastic modelling of cells. In order to understand the development and patterning of the early mammalian embryo, stochastic modelling has become a more important tool than ever. It allows for studying the processes that mediate the transition from pluripotency of the embryonic cells to their differentiation. It is still unclear whether the positions of cells determine their future fates. One alternative possibility is that cells are pre-specified at random positions and then sort according to a already set fate. Mouse embryonic cells are thought to be equivalent in their developmental properties until approaching the eight-cell stage. Some biological studies show, in comparison, that patterning can be present already at sperm entry and in the pronuclei migration. We investigate in Paper I the dynamics of the pronuclei migration by analysing their trajectories and find that not only do the pronuclei follow a noise corrupted path towards the centre of the egg but they also have some attraction to each other which affects their dynamics. Continuing in Paper II and III, we use these results to model this behaviour with a coupled stochastic differential equation model. This enables us to simulate distributions that describe the meeting plane between pronuclei which in turn can be related to the orientation of the first cleavage of the egg. Our results show that adding randomness in sperm entry point is different from the randomness added through the environment of the egg. We are also able to show that data sets with normal eggs and eggs treated with an actin growth inhibitor give rise to considerably different model dynamics, suggesting that the treatment is affecting the migration in an invasive way. Altering the pronuclei dynamics can alter the polarity of the egg and may transfer into the later axis-formation process. Invasiveness of experimental procedures is a difficult issue to handle. The alternative to invasive procedures is not appealing since it means that important developmental features may not be discovered because of individual variability and noise, leading to guesswork of the underlying mechanisms. The embryonic cells are easily affected by treatments performed to make the measuring, made by hand, easier or by the light exposure of the microscope. Treatments as such are used for example for producing flourescent proteins in membranes or slowing processes down. Paper IV and Paper V serve to analyse how light induced stress affects yeast cells and we employ a method for analysing the noisy non-stationary time series, which are a result of the yeast experiments, using wavelet decomposition.
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| 5. |
- Wieloch, Thomas, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Intramolecular carbon isotope signals reflect metabolite allocation in plants
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Experimental Botany. - : Oxford University Press. - 0022-0957 .- 1460-2431. ; 73:8, s. 2558-2575
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Stable isotopes at natural abundance are key tools to study physiological processes occurring outside the temporal scope of manipulation and monitoring experiments. Whole-molecule carbon isotope ratios (13C/12C) enable assessments of plant carbon uptake yet conceal information about carbon allocation. Here, we identify an intramolecular 13C/12C signal at tree-ring glucose C-5 and C-6 and develop experimentally testable theories on its origin. More specifically, we assess the potential of processes within C3 metabolism for signal introduction based (inter alia) on constraints on signal propagation posed by metabolic networks. We propose that the intramolecular signal reports carbon allocation into major metabolic pathways in actively photosynthesizing leaf cells including the anaplerotic, shikimate, and non-mevalonate pathway. We support our theoretical framework by linking it to previously reported whole-molecule 13C/12C increases in cellulose of ozone-treated Betula pendula and a highly significant relationship between the intramolecular signal and tropospheric ozone concentration. Our theory postulates a pronounced preference for leaf cytosolic triose-phosphate isomerase to catalyse the forward reaction in vivo (dihydroxyacetone phosphate to glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate). In conclusion, intramolecular 13C/12C analysis resolves information about carbon uptake and allocation enabling more comprehensive assessments of carbon metabolism than whole-molecule 13C/12C analysis.
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| 6. |
- Bárány-Wallje, Elsa, 1979-
(författare)
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Biophysical studies of cell-penetrating peptides and of the RNR inhibitor Sml1
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Several short peptides, so called cell-penetrating peptides, have the capability to transport large hydrophilic cargos through the cell membrane. The objective is to use these peptides as drug carriers and thereby enhance the uptake of drugs into cells.Three different cell-penetrating peptides are characterized in this thesis. Structure and dynamics of transportan when bound to phospholipid bicelles was determined using NMR. The hydrophobic peptide transportan and its deletion analogue Tp10 both bind to lipid head-group region of the membrane as amphipathic α-helices (papers I & II) and they were found to cause leakage in vesicles (paper IV). The membrane disturbing effect is probably part of how these peptides are translocated through the cell membrane, but also an explanation to why these peptides are found to be toxic in vivo. The high degree of toxicity limits their usefulness. We however also found that the membrane disturbing effect was significantly reduced when a large hydrophilic cargo was attached, which indicates that the properties of the whole peptide-cargo complex has to be taken into account (paper IV).The highly charged cell-penetrating peptide penetratin is not nearly as membrane disturbing as transportan (papers III and IV). Penetratin binds preferably to negatively charged membranes by electrostatic interactions. We used several different techniques to investigate if penetratin could be translocated through membrane model systems. All experiments consistently suggested that penetratin could not be translocated into model systems. It indicates an endocytotic uptake mechanism into cells rather than a direct membrane penetration (paper III). The ribonucleotide reductase inhibitor protein Sml1 was characterized using NMR and CD spectroscopy (paper V). Three different secondary structure elements were found, in agreement with previous NMR studies, but Sml1 does not have a well defined three-dimensional structure in solution. The N-terminus includes an α-helical region between residues 4-14 and we propose that this region interacts with the C-terminal part of the protein in the monomeric form. The N-terminus is also suggested to be a dimerization interface. Dimers are formed at concentrations above 10 µM in solution. The C-terminal region of Sml1 includes an α-helix between residues 61-80 that is crucial for binding and inhibition of RNR.
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| 7. |
- Biverståhl, Henrik, 1977-
(författare)
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Structure and Dynamics of Membrane Associated Peptides
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The peptide-membrane interaction is a key element for many biological functions, from cell signaling to cell internalization. In this thesis the peptide-membrane interaction of six different peptides have been studied with respect to their structure, membrane location and dynamics with spectroscopic methods. Penetratin and the N-terminal sequence of the bovine prion protein (1-30), bPrPp, belong to a class of peptides called cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs). CPPs are short, often highly basic peptides that have the ability to facilitate translocation of an attached hydrophilic cargo over cell-membrane. CD and NMR spectroscopy reveled that penetratin, the (supposedly) non-penetrating mutant pentratin(W48F,W56F) and bPrPp are all highly helical in membrane mimicking media. The position with respect to the bilayer is, however, very different for the three peptides, Penetratin is residing on the membrane surface with a slight tilt while bPrPp is transmembrane and penetratin(W48F,W56F) is somewere in between. These differences can explain the different impact these peptides have on membranesWe have also shown that penetratin can escape from vesicles when an electrochemical or pH gradient is present over the membrane, which support endocytotic internalization.Melittin is a 26 amino acid long residue long peptide and is the major component of the European honey bee venom. Many studies have shown that melittin induces a transient pore that causes leakage in both natural and artificial membranes. In paper IV we used melittin as a model-peptide to investigate how peptides affect lipid dynamics in model-membranes. We showed that carbon-13 relaxation of the lipids could be used to characterize peptide induced changes in lipid dynamicsThe voltage sensor is a domain of the voltage-dependent potassium channel containing several positively charged amino acids (usually arginines). The sensor undergoes a conformational change as a response to a membrane potential. Here, we have studied the membrane location of two fragments corresponding to the “paddle” domain of two different potassium channels, KvAP and HsapBK. NMR and fluorescence studies indicate that both peptides reside inside of the hydrophobic interior of the bilayer, which show that the fragment behave the same way as it does in the intact protein.All six of these peptides interact strongly with model-membranes and adopt a helical conformation even though they have very different biological function. The difference in biological function can instead be explained by the variation in membrane position and membrane dynamics of these peptides
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Friedman, Ran
(författare)
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Proton Transfer on the Molecular Surface of Proteins and Model Systems
- 2009
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Ingår i: Israel Journal of Chemistry. - 0021-2148. ; 49:2, s. 149-153
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Proton transfer (PT) reactions take place oil the molecular Surface of proteins, membranes, ionic polymers, and other molecules. The rates of the reactions can be followed experimentally, while the atomistic details can be elucidated by molecular modeling. This manuscript gives a brief overview of the use of computer simulations and molecular modeling, in conjuction with experiments, to study PT reactions oil the surface of solvated molecules. An integrative approach is discussed, where molecular dynamics simulations are performed with a protein, and quantum-mechanics-based calculations are performed oil a small molecule. The simulation results allow the identification of the necessary conditions that yield PT reactions oil the molecular surface. The reactions are efficient when they involve a donor and acceptor located a few A apart and under the influence of a negative electrostatic field. In proton-pumping proteins, it is possible to identify such conditions a priori and locate proton-attracting antenna domains without the need to mutate each potential donor and acceptor. Based on density functional theory calculations, the arrangement of water molecules that interconnect the donor and acceptor moieties is suggested as the rate-limiting step for proton transfer on the molecular surface.
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| 10. |
- Hugonin, Loïc, 1978-
(författare)
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Spectroscopic studies of dynorphin neuropeptides and the amyloid beta-peptide : The consequences of biomembrane interactions
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Dynorphin A, dynorphin B and big dynorphin are endogenous opioid neuropeptides. They play an important role in a wide variety of physiological functions such as regulation of pain processing and memory acquisition. Such actions are generally mediated through the κ-receptors. Besides opioid receptor interactions, dynorphins have non-opioid physiological activities which result in excitotoxic effects in neuropathic pain, spinal cord and brain injury. In order to gain insight into the mechanisms of the non-opioid interactions of dynorphins with the cell, spectroscopic membrane-interaction studies were performed. We demonstrated that big dynorphin and dynorphin A, but not dynorphin B, penetrated into cells. All dynorphins interact with the membrane model systems with weak membrane-induced secondary structure. Big dynorphin and dynorphin A induce membrane perturbation, calcein leakage and cause permeability of the membrane to calcium in large unilamellar vesicles (LUV). But dynorphins do not translocate in the LUV membrane model system and there is a strong electrostatic contribution to the interaction of the peptides with the membrane bilayer.In the second part of this thesis we investigated the amyloid β(1-40) peptide (Aβ). This peptide is related to Alzheimer’s disease and its soluble oligomeric aggregates are reported to contribute to the pathology of the disease. In order to provide better insight into the aggregation processes we examined the membrane interaction of Aβ in a model system. Gradual addition of small amounts of sodium dodecyl sulfate to an aqueous solution gives rise to a secondary structure conversion of Aβ peptide. The conversion can be described as a two state process, from random coil to β-sheet with formation of high molecular mass complexes between peptide and detergent, possibly mimicking the behavior of the peptide when aggregating at a cell membrane surface. At high detergent concentrations there is a transition from β-sheet to α-helix conformation.
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